Vargas begins his Amazin’ journey
PORT ST. LUCIE — Jason Vargas watched the 2015 World Series from the Royals’ dugout as he recovered from Tommy John surgery, impressed with the talent he saw on the other side.
It was Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, right down the line for the Mets. Now the 35-year-old Vargas is one of them.
“A lot of these players put it on the line for ’15, and I just happened to be in the other dugout,” Vargas said Sunday, when his two-year deal with the Mets, worth $16 million, was officially announced.
Vargas — who was selected to the All-Star Game last season but had a big second-half drop-off — appealed to general manager Sandy Alderson on several levels. Not only is Vargas another lefty to complement Matz, his durability and connection to the new pitching coach Dave Eiland (they were together in Kansas City) placed Vargas ahead of candidates such as Andrew Cashner and Jaime Garcia in the Mets’ search for rotation insurance.
Last season the Mets watched as Syndergaard, Harvey, Matz, Zack Wheeler, Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman spent extensive time on the disabled list, forcing the organization to dig deep for arms to complete the rotation. Included was promoting Chris Flexen directly from Double-A Binghamton and giving regular turns to Rafael Montero, who had been dreadful earlier in the season.
“We need to get back to the point where we have seven or eight guys starting all of our games and not 11, 12, 13,” Alderson said. “If we can do that, we can be pretty good, and Jason really helps us in that regard.”
Vargas pitched to a 6.38 ERA in the second half of last season, blaming his approach for the struggle.
“I wasn’t doing some of the same things early in at-bats that I was earlier in the season, and that was causing me to get exposed in high-leverage situations, when the game was really on the line,” Vargas said. “And then after we were able to clean that up, I kind of got back to a position I was in right before the AllStar break and was able to finish on a pretty positive note.”
Vargas was asked if it’s possible he fizzled physically in the second half, in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery.
“We all would like to have an excuse to lean on,” Vargas said. “The fact of the matter is my arm felt great the whole year. I didn’t have issues where I had to wonder whether I was going to make a start because my arm was tired or I was hitting the wall in the fourth inning because my arm was tired. I think it just all comes down to me not being able to make those pitches early in an at-bat to set up the success that I was having.”